Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft provided amazing views of Pluto when it passed the dwarf planet last year.
Now, to celebrate 365 days since its flyby, the space agency has simulated what it would be like to land on the surface. The video is only a concept and has been stitched together from more than 100 images taken by the spacecraft.
In the 12 months since the passing of Pluto and its moons, New Horizons has beamed back reams of data for scientists to analyse. Academic papers released have shown just how little we previously knew about the dwarf planet, including that it's geologically active.
At the time Nasa said: "the surface of Pluto’s informally-named Sputnik Planum, a massive ice plain larger than Texas, is devoid of any detectable craters and estimated to be geologically young – no more than ten million years old."
Its atmosphere, according to studies, is 21 degrees colder than Earth-based studies had previously estimated. It means that less of Pluto's atmosphere is being whipped away by solar winds than was believed. Methane, rather than nitrogen, was the primary gas escaping from the dwarf planet.
Cryo-volances and smooth plains were discovered while the mountains of Pluto are also capped with methane 'snow'. Mountain tops in the Cthulu region, near the equator of the dwarf planet, are covered with a bright material which "contrasts sharply" with its surroundings. It's believe the material is methane ice.
"That this material coats only the upper slopes of the peaks suggests methane ice may act like water in Earth's atmosphere, condensing as frost at high altitude," Nasa said in a statement.
Since passing Pluto the New Horizon's spacecraft has gone deeper into space. It is now 436,986,008 km (271530516.782 miles) beyond the dwarf planet and exploring the Kuiper Belt.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
